


i wasn't letting up until the day he died

by amplifierverse



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Betty POV, F/M, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Infidelity, betty is kinda fucked up but everyone is in this fic, but not written in first person bc i dont like reading that, first fic i tried, riverdale writers suck and their characters have wasted potential, this idea came in my head and i wrote it in five hours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:02:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28374354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amplifierverse/pseuds/amplifierverse
Summary: The ashes finally placed in the plastic bags, she’s ready for the next step.Certain memorabilia she keeps, though. A string of pearls, his wedding ring, a lock of red hair, a piece of his Serpent jacket. It’s stupidly nostalgic, but everyone needs their small indulgences every once in a while. In her hand, she clutches the last things that they had touched on this earth.Now all that was left was erasing the last bit, and make sure she played her role perfectly.No one would suspect a thing.or, the riverdale au where betty is a generally good girl, except for her temporary lapses into killing.loosely based on taylor swift - no body, no crime. TW in description.
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Betty Cooper, Archie Andrews/Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper/Veronica Lodge, Jughead Jones/Veronica Lodge, Veronica Lodge/Reggie Mantle (background)
Kudos: 25





	i wasn't letting up until the day he died

**Author's Note:**

> What's important to know before reading is that the timeline switches from present to flashbacks/descriptions of the past so the story makes sense. 
> 
> TW: mentions/references to alcoholism, mentions/references to murder (nothing truly graphic), very slight mentions to emotional child abuse (Betty's parents were fucked up), cheating, VERY small mention, not in depth, of selfharm.
> 
> This is my first fic so I'm not expecting much of a response but I enjoyed writing it, Riverdale is an easy universe to write about and weave your own ideas into. But if you like it, leave kudos and a comment for good luck. <3

Breathe in, breathe out.

One two three, one two three, one two three.

Three.

Betty quirks her brow at the scene in front of her, her eyes admiring her job.

Bright red hair and pale skin, a sharp contrast against the blood on his cheek, where he’d smeared it out from his mouth.

Ink black hair and a bloody string of pearls.

A grey beanie and lanky limbs.

Snapping the edge of her plastic gloves against her wrist as a cruel inside joke, Betty smiles and begins her work.

* * *

Betty Cooper knew she was a nice girl, gentle, intelligent, well-loved. She batted her eyelashes once and people believed everything she said.

Things like that make life easy, her surroundings never opposing her. Her picture-perfect family.

In kindergarten, a certain clumsy redheaded boy had drawn her attention and he never lost it.

Watching him move through life; she made notes of his reactions. How he laughed at jokes and cried at certain comments. How he hugged his father when he came home after a long day.

Her daddy wasn’t warm like his, but hers always told her they were the same and that it was important for her to pretend to feel instead of actually letting her emotions in. It made her weak, he had said.

The mirror became her best friend (or what life told her how a best friend should be like) and her worst enemy (her mother’s relentless criticism was to be thanked for that). Turning the corners of her lips up, she memorized Archie’s response at Jughead today.

Jughead Jones made her crinkle her nose. She didn’t like the way he looked or how his daddy would reek of beer. But mostly, Betty didn’t the way he stole Archie away from her.

As sure as she was of the sun rising during the day, she knew that Archie was hers from the day she met him.

Eventually, Betty had accepted Jughead’s presence since there was no way to get rid of him without arousing suspicion around her beautifully constructed façade.

After all, Betty Cooper was a nice girl.

* * *

Sighing, Betty sits down with her back against the bark of the tree, pulling her water-bottle from her backpack.

She’d forgotten for a moment how heavy people were. Though she’s strong, carrying fully grown bodies on her own had worn her down.

Luckily, she had arrived at the bunker. Wiping the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand, Betty opens the latch.

The plastic wasn’t foolproof, but she currently did not have a different option so she figured it would do.

They just needed to be a bit smaller so the fire would burn easier. Dumping the bodies down the opening, they land one by one with a dull thud on the concrete. Humming under her breath, she climbed down after them and sealed the bunker, muttering her thoughts half to herself, half out loud.

The words her father had told her after her first kill.

“The hard part is over.”

* * *

Until Veronica Lodge came into town, her life had been just about how she wanted it. Everyone was in their places, Archie right where she expected him.

Just ms Grundy had been awfully annoying, but after her mysterious disappearance Betty felt a lot lighter. It was a shame she never really got the bloodstains out of her favorite pink sweater, though.

Veronica Lodge wanted to be the sun and Betty got moved to the place of the moon, who was only allowed to shine after, and because of the sun. Archie had made heart-eyes at her from the beginning, disrupting Betty’s structure.

Well then, the way to manage Veronica was through becoming her best friend. Easily, Betty batted her eyelashes and quivered her lip at Cheryl’s words and Veronica (or ‘Ronnie’ as she had made Betty inwardly reluctantly call her) had fallen like an axe for her.

Their first kiss had been a surprise to her, so Betty made sure that she initiated the second kiss, soft lips meeting each other while sprawled across Veronica’s satin sheets.

Every time after, Betty needed a long shower to get rid of the almost sickening sweet smell of cherries before Archie would’ve noticed it on her. His room always smelled of sweat and his sheets were probably unwashed but that wasn’t important because he was exactly in place again as Betty let him between her thighs and whispered lovely nothings into his ear.

Meanwhile, Jughead had started to near in on her with the newspaper debacle. He was easy to befriend, and his disinterest in sex or romance gave Betty a much-needed break. Jughead Jones was smart – but not as quick of mind as her.

Life was sweet, shining brightly and most importantly, she was content.

It wasn’t until Polly came back, that the trouble began.

* * *

The ashes finally placed in the plastic bags, she’s ready for the next step.

Certain memorabilia she keeps, though. A string of pearls, his wedding ring, a lock of red hair, a piece of his Serpent jacket. It’s stupidly nostalgic, but everyone needs their small indulgences every once in a while. In her hand, she clutches the last things that they had touched on this earth.

Now all that's left is erasing the last bit, and make sure she plays her role perfectly.

No one would suspect a thing.

* * *

Betty loved her sister, really. But she got in the way of attention, Jason got too close, so all it took was dropping small hints to her mother and Polly was sent to the Sisters to do some repenting. Jason died, they solved the murder, alas, everything was fine.

Her relationships were kept carefully apart, she started to close in on Archie. She wasn’t the only one, and despite her efforts, Archie strayed towards Veronica, who in turn strayed away from Betty. Losing Veronica wasn’t a big deal, it just needed to go according to her plan.

Reggie Mantle wasn’t a genius, or even remotely intelligent, but he was handsome and just Veronica’s type.

Some gentle pushing, whispered words, rumors spread, and Archie and Ronnie were broken apart and Reggie had moved into place. Milkshakes at Pops were shared, Archie came crying on her shoulder, and life was hers once again.

Until on a Sunday morning, Betty opened the door to find a bright blonde smiling at her, a malicious glint in her sister’s eyes as they looked back at hers.

Betty wasn’t the only daughter of Hal Cooper, and Polly was out for revenge. Her sister knew too much, she had followed Betty’s fixation on Archie from the very beginning. Polly took one look at her friends and knew exactly how Betty’s careful manipulation had worked out.

Turns out that Polly didn’t have her babies and had gotten an abortion after all. The plan had been to send Polly from the Sisters to the Farm but that all relied on her children and her being tied to them. Now that she was free, she could inflict a lot more damage than Betty had anticipated.

Betty couldn’t control her, and the threat needed to be eliminated.

Luckily, spiking her morning coffee with some pills did the job for her and Polly was back to being admitted to a hospital.

After Polly, though, Betty let her human side take over more. Seeing her personality projected on someone else had shaken her up enough to make a change.

Betty still kept a trick up her sleeve, as it had helped her before – because honestly, she made the world a better place by killing a predatory mediocre music teacher – but her life was content enough that it was safe to allow herself to feel.

* * *

“I just can’t believe he would do this to me, mom.” Betty cries, saltwater spilling over her cheeks. Alice only tightens her grip on where she’s holding Betty’s hand, an effort to solace her daughter.

“You will get through this, Elizabeth. That boy is a coward for walking out on you like this, he was nothing but trouble from the start. Not to mention that Lodge girl, they’re all snakes. I should’ve protected you better.”

The orange light of the sun setting reflects off the gold of her wedding ring, Betty sniffles and her mother pulls her in for a tight hug.

* * *

After graduation, Betty had gone to Yale and Archie stayed home with his dad and went to community college. A promise was shared to stay together, and it worked. She saw him at Christmas and called him every night.

In her third year, Archie got down on one knee for her.

Their wedding took place in June after she finished college, Veronica as her bridesmaid, Jughead as Archie’s best man. It had been a hot day, Veronica had caught the bouquet, and her mother cried.

Betty got the job of editor at the Riverdale Register from her mother and Archie became the high school football coach before taking over his father’s construction company. Their house was down the street from her childhood-home and once again, life was good. Her mother visited on Sundays and her criticism lessened as Alice grew softer.

Keeping Archie’s attention was easy after all her years with him, especially with Veronica settled in New York, and they were happy.

In her fourth year of marriage, on a Saturday afternoon in September, Veronica called her squealing with joy that she was moving back to Riverdale, and she was so happy to live near her Betty and Archiekins again.

Honestly, Betty should’ve slit her throat the first time the name Archiekins had fallen.

Right, and the biggest news? Veronica was dating Jughead and apparently, it was getting serious – "Oh my god B, I’m so excited. It’s truly a Romeo and Juliet like forbidden romance."

A cruel comparison since that play ends in a tragic double suicide, and the irony wasn’t lost on her.

Archie smiled from ear to ear and pulled her in for a tight, happy hug – "That’s great, Betts, I can’t wait!"

Veronica returned and instantly, Betty got pushed back to second place. The world radiated once more around her best friend.

Veronica and Jughead tied the knot on a rainy afternoon in April, with a surprisingly modest ceremony. The afterparty was huge, Serpents and Veronica’s mafia family making an interesting mix.

Archie got wasted on champagne and passed out on her living room floor, after Betty rejected his sloppy, sweaty advances – "Come on babe, it has been days, just give me this. Let’s make a baby together, c’mon."

Six months later, they were sitting in a doctor’s office, the sterile smell filling her nostrils, and they were told there was nothing they could do. Betty had run out, and Archie drowned his sorrows in a bottle of whiskey at the Whyte Wyrm.

Jughead brought him home at three in the morning, a pitied look in his eyes as Archie threw up on the roses in her front yard, the red ones she’d planted with her mother the year she got married. Betty pointed him the door, and he laid a hand on her shoulder – "There are so many other options, Betty. You’ll figure it out, nobody deserves to be parents more than you guys."

Three weeks after the debacle, Archie’s dad had a heart attack and passed away. The funeral was two days later, Veronica cried on Betty’s shoulder and Archie played a tearful song on his guitar. That night, Betty woke up to find Archie smashing his guitar to pieces in the garage, the car he’d built with his dad in the background.

Their fifth Christmas together, Archie got a promotion and started to work a lot of late nights. Betty smiled and kissed him, whispering how proud she was of him. It was then she noticed that he smelled different.

Three months later, Veronica was wearing a shiny new bracelet on her wrist, and Betty’s stomach turned when she checked their joint bank account.

His shirts smelled like the perfume she had gifted Veronica on Christmas and his lips tasted like cherries when he came home at night. Jughead’s eyes started to look bruised, his mouth set in a thin line every time her or her husband’s name fell, and he started to spend more and more time at the Serpent bar.

* * *

Checking milk of her list, Betty rounds the corner of the isle, leaning distractedly on her cart. Archie had always whined about grocery shopping, but she never minded the task.

Staring at the bright packaging displayed in front of her, sudden voices behind the isle draw her attention.

“Honestly, was anybody really surprised they left her? Like, everybody knew Veronica and Archie were like, endgame. If you ask me Betty was just naive.” Ethel Muggs declares presumptuously, her voice echoing through the store.

“That’s a bit harsh, Ethel. She didn’t deserve to be walked out on without so much as a phone call.”, a soft voice – that Betty recognizes as Midge Klump – responds.

“I’m not saying she deserved it, I’m saying she could’ve known. Besides that, not just her, Jughead too. The one thing I don’t understand is why Betty stayed after he left. I mean, walking in on your best friends must be like, traumatizing, so I get why he didn’t want to stay but why didn’t she go as well?”

Midge sighs at her friend. “Her family lives here, to me it makes sense she didn’t go. Her family basically owns the town now that the Blossoms are out, she’s in the best spot she could be. A solid job, big house.”

Betty hears the rustling of a cart, and she jumps up but she’s too late. Midges brown eyes widen in surprise, Ethel on her heels mirroring her expression. Forcing a polite, tight smile on her face, Betty gives them a small nod.

Ethel’s mouth forms words, her cheeks red with embarrassment. “Oh, hi, Betty. Um, how…”

Before more comes out, Betty turns and walks out of the store, leaving the flustered girls behind.

* * *

Betty was doing the dishes when Archie stumbled in through the backdoor, slamming it closed behind him. Her eyebrows raised at his state, she leaned back against the kitchen counter.

“Good day at work, honey?”, she said with a nauseatingly sweet tone, her fake smile making her cheeks ache. Archie looked distraught for a moment, expecting her to do exactly the opposite, to yell at him for being two hours late.

“Yeah, yeah. You ate without me?” He approached her, raking his hand through his already messy hair.

“Well, since you decided to take a while. Was work truly that busy?”

“Yeah, we got a new project coming up so I had to stay late, sorry babe.”

“It’s alright.” Betty placed her hands on his neck, tugging slightly at the hair at the nape of his neck, and when he met her gaze her smile faded. She gave a rough pull at his hair, Archie winced.

“What the fuck?”, Archie rubbed a hand over his neck, furrowing his brows at her.

“There’s lipstick on your collar, you dick.” Betty pushed him away and stepped towards the hallway, she turned around one last time, tears glistening in her green eyes. “I hope she at least makes you happy.”

“Betty…”

But she was already out of the door.

Veronica couldn’t look her in the eyes when Betty ran into her at the store. Her friend looked tired, bags under her eyes and her skin dull underneath her makeup.

When she visited the Whyte Wyrm, she found Jughead finishing off a bottle of vodka at four in the afternoon. F.P. was standing outside smoking when she got back to her car, and Betty sent him a sharp look before driving away.

Nothing changed. Archie stayed, his infidelity a dark stain on their formerly bright future, and Betty still kissed him goodbye every morning before he goes off to work.

Four months later, Jughead called her, slurring his words as he told her Veronica is pregnant. Betty had to suppress a wave of nausea at the message.

Archie visibly paled at the news, and they didn’t talk for three whole days. Jughead got arrested for drunken disorderly after starting a fight in a bar and Archie bailed him out.

Two weeks later, they met each other in the hospital room, the white walls bearing down on her yet again.

Jughead decided to get sober after Veronica’s miscarriage, Archie drowned himself in his work and Veronica left for three weeks to visit New York. Betty stayed.

* * *

“Are you sure about this, honey?”, Alice searches out her daughter’s eyes, looking for confirmation. Betty gives her a reassuring smile, tightening the strap on her backpack.

“Yes, mom.”

Alice sighs, and pats her shoulder, her eyes looking dangerously moist. Emotionally, her mother was a lot like her.

“Fine, then. My daughter going off to Europe. I truly do hope you have a good time, sweetheart, god knows you deserve it after this year. Go on and write that book.”

The sounds of the airport behind them painting the scene for her departure, Betty smiles at her mother and gives her a tight hug.

“I love you, Elizabeth.”

“Love you too, mom. I will be back in six months, so don’t go all sad on me now. I’ll call you when I land.”

* * *

Slowly, Veronica’s absence began to heal the cracks in her marriage. Archie made her laugh again and he held her at night, replacing the ocean of distance that had been between them for the past two years.

Jughead’s sobriety pulled through, and Veronica lingered in New York for four more months.

The topic of adoption came up between Betty and Archie, and she started doing research and setting financial goals for the future. Their house became warm again, her mother even giving her some praise for how she’d decorated their interior after remodeling.

Life began to fall into its old place.

Until Veronica unexpectedly returned on a cold January morning, standing on her doorstep with tears streaming down her face and basically pleading Betty to be there for her. Veronica had broken with her family, for good this time. They weren’t teenagers anymore, and Veronica’s unknown half-sister had grabbed her chance to replace her in her Hiram Lodge’s favor by scheming against her - "Hermosa made him believe I betrayed him, B, I can't go back."

Her sister had been successful, and Veronica was banished. In turn, she was back in Riverdale, trying to scrape back the shreds of her life that she’d left behind. Jughead had slammed the door in her face.

Archie basically tripped over his feet when he saw Veronica sitting in their living room, Betty cooking dinner in the kitchen. The tips of his ears were red when she walked back into the room, balancing three plates on her arms.

The second night, Archie snuck into their bedroom after an hour of being gone, Betty feigning her sleep.

In the morning, his pillow smelled like cherries.

Not soon after, Veronica returned to Jughead.

* * *

“Betty, I just have no words. It’s great, it’s heartbreaking, it’s warming, it’s cold. I’m obsessed!” Her agent exclaims through the phone, her tinny voice sounding through the empty hotel room.

“Really?” Betty smiles, inwardly beaming with pride of her work.

“Yes! It’s wonderful. I want more. Europe is doing you good.”

“Yeah, it really is. I’m thinking about staying here for a while longer, maybe move to London.”

“London is rainy, but a good place for the soul of a writer. Mail me the next twenty pages in a week? A tough deadline, I know.” Maura laughs. “But you can do it, I believe in you.”

* * *

It was Cheryl Blossom who broke the news to them, marching up to her and Jughead at Pops. Her poison-red painted lips widened in a cold smile as she took them in, and Betty dug her nails in her palm.

Since high school, the former Queen Bee had been married and divorced three times, all of her husbands mysteriously disappearing without a trace.

Nobody had the gut to ask questions.

“Well then, cousin, king of the Hobo’s, I believe I have something tragic to tell you two. I was out last night, driving by the forest to return to my Thornhill, when something – or rather, someone –”, Cheryl looked thoughtful, tapping a crimson, polished fingernail against her chin, “caught my eye. Any idea where your lovely spouses were last night?”

The realization slid over them like ice, their expressions turning blank as white-hot rage erupted inside Betty’s chest.

Cheryl smiled even wider, a satisfied, cruel glint in her eyes. “They looked rather cozy. Ah, but I’m sure you were aware of this? After all, you four are so close. Or, oops, sorry, maybe it’s just them.”

Seeing her words hit home, Cheryl sighed and clasped her hands together. “Ah, lovely catching up with you. Unfortunately, I have other places to be, other relationships to ruin by unveiling their dark secrets. Toodles!”

Betty heard Jughead take deep breaths, her eyes closed shut as scarlet crescents formed on the inside of her hand. It had started again.

* * *

“Yes, mom, I’m sure you’ll love it here…”

“Yes, my apartment is safe.”

“Alright, I love you too. Bye now.”

Her mother’s goodbyes in her ear, Betty struggles with her keys. The lock clicking, she releases a breath and enters her apartment. It wasn’t much, but it’s all she needed. It’s hers, and after her years of saving her money she had some to spent here.

Her book is close to finished, and her life is looking up. Her agent is enthusiastic, and despite Alice Cooper’s attempts to get her back to Riverdale, Betty felt at home in the English capital.

Tying her hair up in a ponytail, Betty walks into her bedroom. Halting her steps, her reflection stares back at her in the mirror. In adulthood, she had begun to wear her hair down, but every once in a while, she could look in the mirror and find that innocent girl-next-door from high school.

A picture stuck in the corner catches her attention, Betty grazes her fingers over their faces. How young they’d been.

Smiling brightly at herself, she continues to trail them down the string of pearls hanging from the edge.

Oh, how life had fallen into place.

* * *

“Why?”

The question hung in the air around them, bearing down on them, suffocating them with the weight.

Archie sighed, and scrubbed a hand over his face. Betty leaned back against the dresser, observing him where he was sitting on the edge of their bed.

“Honestly, I don’t know.” Archie looked at her, hurt breaking through in his eyes.

“What kind of weak answer is that?! I thought I married a man, but who-ever is sitting in front of me right now is anything but.”

“Oh, like you’re one to talk.”, he bit back at her.

Betty narrowed her eyes at his words. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing, Betts, I…”

“No, tell me what’s that supposed to mean.” Betty repeated back at him, having a gut feeling. “Or I can ask my best friend, you know, who’ve you been fucking for the last – how many years again?”

“Jesus, Betty!” Archie jumped up from the bed, his shoulders tense.

“What, am I saying anything that’s untrue? Or have you been 'making love', behind the backs of the people who wear your wedding-rings?!”

“It’s not like that.”

“Really repeating your father’s mistakes here, huh? Wasn’t he busy fucking Hermione Lodge when we were in high school, while your mother was off in another city?” Betty started to lose her control, years of pent-up frustration spilling out of her. Her insult reached its desired target, Archie’s face red with anger.

“At least Veronica didn’t back away from me.”, he hissed at her, starting to close in on her. “She didn’t leave my side of the bed cold for days at a time whenever shit got bad.”

“Except she wasn’t really the one sleeping in it every night, was she?! I washed your dirty dishes and did your laundry! I loved you for my entire life and took care of you through all of it. And you throw it away for her?!” Betty yelled back, throwing her hands up in the air to emphasize her words.

“At least she can bear my children.”, Archie snapped.

Betty slapped him square across the face.

Before he could take anything back, she stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

It was time.

If Betty couldn’t have him, nobody deserved to have him. Least of all the spoiled rich girl that had been sucking up everyone's energy and attention ever since she'd arrived.

Betty had tried feelings, to be normal like everyone else. All it had brought her was pain.

The plan was made as such; he needed to go from the start. She should’ve ended Veronica’s drama ages ago. Lastly, Jughead was simply collateral damage.

No, they left her behind. Archie and Veronica had been having an affair for the past three years, and Jughead and her walked in on them in his bedroom. The last straw being pulled, Jughead had jumped on his bike, and left to never come back. FP left a while ago when the Serpents fell apart and his mother was absent from the start. Nobody asked questions.

Upset, Betty had returned to her home in tears, making sure her neighbors saw her arrive and nobody saw her leave later that night.

Archie and Veronica eloped and ran away together to move somewhere unknown, too ashamed to face their mistake. Archie left behind a letter for her and Veronica’s family had been pretending for years she didn’t exist.

It might seem too easy, but don’t underestimate the Cooper’s influence on the town. Suspicions were whispered, but Betty left before they could further grow, and nothing was confirmed.

After all, no body, no crime.

Betty’s first book got published and excitedly, a sequel was requested after popular demand.

Two years later, she married a kindhearted man she met in a coffeeshop where he’d been working as a barista. Andrew loved her, and they were happy in their tiny London flat with two cats.

In the picture on the back of her second book, if one looked closely, a string of pearls was shining around her neck.

_fin._

**Author's Note:**

> Poor Jughead. Small eastereggs probably only me noticed: I tried to make the numbers three and four come back multiple times in the story, because yk, core four, Betty killed three of them. Her new husband's name being Andrew was just funny to me because of Archie's last name. I always like reading such small things in stories that hint at more without even telling much. 
> 
> Besides that, I apologize for grammatical errors and possible plot holes. English is not my first language and high school me hated my English teacher so I'm mostly self-taught and it shows in my writing, lol.


End file.
